There are a lot of recommendation lists for Mac out there.
After going over a few and testing stuff out, this is an opinionated list of tools and apps I actually use.
It's recommended to install everything using Homebrew (the open source macOS package manager) for easier installation and upgrade management.
- Android File Transfer - Need to transfer files to you Android device? Download this first [
brew install --cask android-file-transfer] - App Cleaner - Cleans up the files left behind after deleting apps [
brew install --cask appcleaner] - Arc - The best web browser ever [
brew install --cask arc] - Cyberduck - A good FTP client for Mac [
brew install --cask cyberduck] - Dozer - Hides menu bar icons for a cleaner menu bar [
brew install --cask dozer] - Google Drive - Easy cloud storage and sync [
brew install --cask google-drive] - IntelliBar - Keyboard shortcut to add GPT magic to any text you select on your Mac [Download]
- Itsycal - A tiny menu bar calendar [
brew install --cask itsycal] - Maccy - Clean and simple clipboard manager [
brew install --cask maccy] - MacMediaKeyForwarder - Make the pause/next buttons work on Spotify and other media players [
brew install --cask macmediakeyforwarder] - Motrix - A fast download manager (also does torrents) [
brew install --cask motrix] - Rectangle - Windows-like window management with nice keyboard shortcuts [
brew install --cask rectangle] - Rocket - Slack like emoji shortcuts everywhere [
brew install --cask rocket] - Scroll Reverser - Gives the option for having different scroll direction for the trackpad and an external mouse [
brew install --cask scroll-reverser] - Swift Quit - Automatically "quits" applications once the last window is closed [
brew install --cask swift-quit] - The Unarchiver - "Winrar" for Mac [
brew install --cask the-unarchiver] - VMware Fusion - The best VMs for Mac (it's free for personal use) [
brew install --cask vmware-fusion] - WhatsApp - WhatsApp Mac client [
brew install --cask whatsapp] - Zoom - Zoom Mac client [
brew install --cask zoom]
- IINA - Modern clean and native media player [
brew install --cask iina] - Plex Media Server - Best media server out there [
brew install --cask plex-media-server] - Spotify - Free music! [
brew install --cask spotify]
- Adobe Acrobat Reader - The PDF reader that sucks the least [
brew install --cask adobe-acrobat-reader] - Bear Notes - A very simple, comprehensive and beautiful notes app for Mac [Download]
- Microsoft Office - You know what it is [Download]
- Notion - Uber comprehensive "all-in-one" workplace(?) [
brew install --cask notion]
- Fira Code - An open-source font designed specifically for better and easier code readability [
brew tap homebrew/cask-fonts && brew install --cask font-fira-code+ this] - GitHub Desktop - Git client app for GitHub [
brew install --cask github] - HexEdit - Fast and native hex editor [Install]
- Insomnia - Clean API client and design tool [
brew install --cask insomnia] - Sourcetree - Clean and simple Git client app [
brew install --cask sourcetree] - Sublime Text - Really simple and good text/code editor [
brew install --cask sublime-text] - TablePlus - A clean GUI app for relational database [
brew install --cask tableplus] - Visual Studio Code - Best IDE software ever [
brew install --cask visual-studio-code] - Warp - A very fast terminal with neat modern features [
brew install --cask warp] - Wireshark - The best networks protocol analyzer/sniffer [
brew install --cask wireshark]
- Go - [
brew install go] - Helm - [
brew install helm] - Kubernetes CLI - [
brew install kubernetes-cli] - Leapp - Manage access to multiple cloud accounts - [
brew install --cask leapp] - minikube - An easy to work with local k8s cluster - [
brew install minikube] - nvm - Node version manager [
brew install nvm] - OrbStack - Run and build Docker containers, but faster! [
brew install --cask orbstack] - PyEnv - A better way to install and manage Python installations [
brew install pyenv] - RedisInsight - The best Redis UI out there [
brew install --cask redisinsight] - Rust - [
brew install rustup-init] - Terraform - [
brew install terraform]
- act - Run GitHub Actions locally [
brew install act] - Bash - Mac comes with an old Bash version, install the latest one [
brew install bash] - Bash Git Prompt - Show git status in command prompt [
brew install bash-git-prompt] - Bat - A
catclone with syntax highlighting [brew install bat] - Fast CLI - CLI client for fast.com [
npm install --global fast-cli] - The Fuck - "Autocorrect" for bash [
brew install thefuck] - htop - Process manager for bash [
brew install htop] - k9s - Awesome and comprehensive CLI manager for Kubernetes [
brew install k9s] - tldr - tl;dr for bash commands [
brew install tldr] - The Ultimate vimrc - Pre-baked awesome Vim configuration [Install]
- Vim - The best CLI text/code editor [
brew install neovim]
This isn't actually related specifically to Mac, but I already made a list of recommendations so...
- Monokai Night Theme - Sublime Text like theme [Install]
- Plastic - My favorite VSCode theme [Install]
- Serendipity - A colorful theme built specifically for retina displays [Install]
- Bracket Pair Colorizer 2 - Colors matching brackets [Install]
- CodeSnap - Create "screenshots" of your code [Install]
- Debugger for Chrome - Debug JS in Chrome [Install]
- File Utils - Command pallete for file management (duplicate, rename, etc) [Install]
- GitHub Copilot - Incredible AI autocomplete for code [Install]
- gitignore -
.gitignoresyntax highlighting [Install] - GitLens - Supercharged Git capabilities [Install]
- Highlight Matching Tag - Hightlights the matching HTML tag when selected [Install]
- Image Preview - Preview images embedded in HTML/CSS [Install]
- Open in SourceTree - Adds command for opening the projects git repo in Sourcetree [Install]
- Output Colorizer - Colorizers output in VSCode's panels [Install]
- Path Intellisense - Auto-complete for file paths [Install]
- Prettify JSON - Pretiffies JSON files [Install]
- TODO Highlight - Highlights TODOs, FIXMEs, etc in your code Install
- Trailing Spaces - Highlights trailing white-spaces [Install]
- vscode-spotify - Control Spotify and see currently playing song in VSCode [Install]
- WakaTime - Track how your time is spent in VSCode [Install]
- XML - XML "language" support [Install]
- YAML - YAML "language" support [Install]
- Angular Language Service - Angular "language" support [Install]
- Better TOML - Improved TOML syntax highlighting [Install]
- Black Formatter - Python code formatter [Install]
- Docker - Dockerfile syntax highlighting + management tools (build, run, etc) [Install]
- HashiCorp Terraform - (The official) Terraform language support [Install]
- IntelliSense for CSS class names in HTML - CSS auto-complete [Install]
- Jinja - Jinja language server [Install]
- Less IntelliSense - Less auto-complete [Install]
- markdownlint - Markdown linter Install
- openapi-lint - Lints and validates OpenAPI files [Install]
- Prettier - Web stack code formatter Install
- Pseudocode - Syntax highlighting for pseudocode [Install]
- Python - Python language support [Install]
- Ruff - Ruff language support [Install]
- Swagger Viewer - Preview Swagger/OpenAPI files inside VSCode [Install]
- Vue Language Features (volar) - Vue tooling for VSCode [Install]
- Bitwarden - An open source password manager
- Bypass Paywalls - Bypass paywall on lots of popular news sites
- Earth View from Google Earth - A pretty Google Earth image on every new tab you open
- File Icons for Github and Gitlab - Adds file icons to GitHub + Gitlab, makes looking at repos online easier
- Google Analytics Opt-out - Make Google track you less when surfing the web
- Simplify Gmail - Cleans Gmail up and removes unnecessary bloat
- TunnelBear VPN - Good and legit VPN, 1.5GB free per month
- uBlock Origin - A good open-source and efficient ad blocker
- Wappalyzer - Shows the stack the website you're on is using
- Zoom Closer - Automatically closes the annoying "Opening Zoom" tabs